LISBON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Portugal's largest construction company, Mota-Engil, saw nine months net profit rise sharply but miss forecasts as its operations in central Europe felt the impact of recession.

But the firm's metal infrastructure unit Martifer swung back into profit and its total order backlog was little changed at the end of September from a year earlier at 2.6 billion euros ($3.87 billion).

At 0820 GMT shares in Mota were 0.14 percent lower at 4.159 euros. Its shares have risen nearly 80 percent this year.

Mota's net profit rose nearly fivefold to 67.9 million euros but missed the 73 million euro consensus of analyst forecasts collated by Reuters. Excluding Martifer, net attributable income rose about 17 percent to 25.1 million, Mota said in a statement on Friday.

Revenues rose 15 percent to 1.57 billion euros, in line with forecasts.

Mota said revenues in its main construction division rose 17 percent to 1.24 billion euros on the back of 22 percent growth in Portugal and 43 percent growth in Angola, while revenues in Central Europe fell 16 percent due to the recession and an unfavourable exchange rate.

(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; editing by John Stonestreet) ($1=.6722 Euro) Keywords: MOTAENGIL/

(andrei.khalip@thomsonreuters.com; (351) 213-509-209; RM: andrei.khalip.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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